All posts for “language”

language

The Web really is a wonderous thing. Thanks to e-commerce tools like e-junkie and paypal, two people can run a home-based business with global reach. We've been offering digital downloads of our videos via this website for about 2 years and recently took a look at the makeup of our customers in terms of nationality. We've licensed videos in 41 countries in all. Below are the top 20.
We've always had a goal of being as global as possible, which is why we've had ten of our videos translated... Continue Reading

We've re-thought our website from the ground up and soon you'll see the all the changes we're making. For now though, I want to highlight a few things that make a big difference.
1. A Focus on the Business. This may be the best way to explain how the focus has changed:
The current Common Craft site says "WE HAVE A BLOG - and we sell videos"
The *new* Common Craft site says "WE SELL VIDEOS - and we have a blog"
It's true - the new site is more closely aligned with the goal of finding, viewing... Continue Reading

When asked what sort of videos we make it's a bit hard to explain in normal terms. They're not really instructional or how-to, they have elements of marketing and promotion and some say they are entertaining. Here's a few options - maybe you have more?
Infodocutainmercials?
Explanatainment?
Docuinfotainment?
Explanapromomercials?
Explanadocuinfotainmercials?
or maybe just...
explainment?
By the way, don't expect to see any of this on the Common Craft business cards - just for fun.
Any... Continue Reading

We've been friends and fans of dotSUB since we first started making video for The Common Craft Show. They make it easy for videos to be translated into multiple languages via subtitles.
The RSS in Plain English video has been translated into 20+ languages on dotSUB. A truly useful and innovative service.
I've gotten permission from the Google Docs team to share the Google Docs video on dotSUB so it's acessible for the hearing impaired and our non-English speaking friends.
Are you bi-... Continue Reading

Did you know that in a recent survey by Harris Interactive that only 16% of the online public know what a wiki is? For some, this will seem surprising. Others will say "what's a wiki?"
I had coffee today with my friend Kevin Flaherty of Wet Paint, the Seattle-based wiki company. He told me that they were perplexed that "wiki" was deemed one the 10 most annoying words on the web, so they ask Harris Interactive to do the survey comparing "wiki" to the terms social network, blog and online... Continue Reading

Just after posting our first video on RSS , I learned a few valuable lessons:
1. Video is inaccessible for the hearing impaired
2. Video is not easy to translate into other languages
3. There is a new site that addresses both of these issues called DotSub .
DotSub makes it easy for me to transcribe the spoken words into text subtitles. Then, once the subtitles exist, it enables DotSub members to voluntarily translate the text into other languages and post the video to their blogs. This makes... Continue Reading

As we had hoped, the RSS in Plain English video has been a learning experience. One important lesson has been a better recognition of the needs of non-English speakers and the hearing impaired when it comes to video.
We want the video to be useful for everyone. Thankfully, (sorry I can't remember who) Darran pointed me to the Rocketboom episode where they reveal how they are using a service called DotSub to add user-generated subtitles in multiple languages to their videos. How cool.
So, I had... Continue Reading

If you havenâ€™t noticed, lots of new frankenwords are making their way through the online lexicon. Napster was one of the originals, prompting a number of new names like Friendster, Feedster and Dogster.
Now weâ€™re seeing the proliferation of new words based on Podcasting. Some that Iâ€™ve seen are Beercasts (credit to Greg Narain), Snapcasts (credit to Jake McKee), blogcasts (credit to Jeff Jarvis) and pocketcasting. Maybe soon weâ€™ll see a new social network of podcasters: podster.... Continue Reading

I was thinking back about all the things I learned this year and something popped into my head that made be cringe, and laugh a little. A few weeks ago, I ran my first focus group. My teammates and I were sharing a concept with a group of managers and looking for their perceptions, ideas, thoughts etc.
I was the lead and really wanted to make a connection with the group as I described the process. Then, a phrase came out of my mouth that I would later regret. I didnâ€™t plan on it and... Continue Reading